▪ I. coffer, n.
(ˈkɒfə(r))
Forms: 4 cofere, coofer, 4–5 cofre, cofur, 4–6 coffre, 4–7 cofer, 5 cofir, cofyr(e, (cowffer, coufre, cophor), 6 coafer, (cofar, coffar, coffur), 4– coffer.
[ME. cofre, coffre, etc., a. OF. cofre, coffre:—L. cophin-um, nom. cophinus, a. Gr. κόϕινος basket; cf. coffin. The phonetic development (through *cof'no) is the same as in L. ordin-em, F. ordre, L. *Londinus, F. Londres. For the extension of sense, cf. (in Du Cange) Capit. de Villis, cap. 62: ‘de cofinis id est scriniis’.]
1. A box, chest: esp. a strong box in which money or valuables are kept.
| c 1300 Beket 1925 Ich have a lute cofre..Ther beoth ȝut inne atte leste eiȝte hondred pound. c 1325 Coer de L. 1939 They brake coffers and took tresours. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 843 He gooth vn to his cofre And broghte gold. 1463 Bury Wills (1850) 25 The seid William to have..al my..cofferys, and tubbes wid alle othir ostilmentys. Ibid. 33 A lityl grene coffre for kerchys. 1548 W. Thomas Ital. Gram. & Dict. (1567), Cassa, a cheste or coafer. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres v. iii. 134 These shot and bullets must be carried in coffers. 1607 Shakes. Timon i. ii. 199 He commands vs to prouide, and giue great guifts, and all out of an empty Coffer. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. vii. 28 Several coffers and cabinets..were fill'd with stuffs of gold. c 1800 K. White Poet. Wks. (1837) 80 My breast's my coffer, and my God's my hope. 1802 W. Irving Braceb. Hall iii. 25 A large iron-bound coffer. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus xxiv, He owns not a slave nor any coffer. |
b. In the plural often equivalent to ‘treasury’, and hence ‘funds, pecuniary resources’.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 192 For alle are we crystes creatures and of his coffres riche. 1413 Lydg. Pilgr. Sowle iii. iv. (1483) 52 Al went..in to your owne Cofres. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 112 Whereby thou mayest..enrich thy cofers. 1692 Dryden St. Euremont's Ess. 198 As long as we have Money in our Coffers. 1721 Swift South Sea, A million in his coffers. 1833 H. Martineau Fr. Wines & Pol. vi. 82 The coffers of the government had long been empty. 1867 Smiles Huguenots Eng. i. (1880) 2 Efforts..to fill the coffers of Rome by the sale of indulgences. |
† 2. An ark. Applied to Noah's ark, the ‘ark’ of bulrushes in which Moses was laid, and the ‘ark of God’. Obs.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 310 Make to þe..A cofer closed of tres. c 1340 Cursor M. 5614 (Trin.) A cofur of ȝerdes dud she [Moses' mother] be wrouȝt. 1388 Wyclif Ex. xxv. 10 Ioyne ȝe togidere an arke [MS. c 1420 arke ether cofere]. 1549 Coverdale Erasm. Par. Heb. 21 They put it in a lytle cofer, and layde it oute vpon a ryuers banke. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) III. 117 [David's] Dance..in the Procession of the Sacred Coffer. |
† 3. A coffin. Obs.
| c 1381 Chaucer Parl. Foules 177 The piler elm, the cofre unto careyne. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas i. iv. (1554) 6 b, Whan y{supt} death nayled them in their coffers. 1488 Will of Batte (Somerset Ho.), My body to be buryed in a cofer of tree. 1550 Nicolls Thucyd. 54 (R.) A great coffer of cypres. Into whiche they did putt the boanes of them, that were dead of that trybe. 1555 [see coffer v. 1]. |
† 4. coffer of the heart: the pericardium. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxxvi. (1495) 149 Abowte the herte is a maner clothynge that hyghte the shryne and the cofre of the hert. Ibid. 150 The herte..greuyd by some postume that infecteth the cofre therof. |
5. Arch. a. A sunk panel in a ceiling or soffit, of ornamental character, usually decorated in the centre with a flower or the like.
| 1664 Evelyn tr. Freart's Archit. 138 Those [are call'd] Cofers wherein are cut the Roses..which adorn the spaces 'twixt the heads of the Modilions and Mutules. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 506 The coffers of the soffit of the cornice are square. 1845 Athenæum 11 Jan. 48 On the grounds of the coffers forming the lacunaria of the ceilings. |
b. A space within a wall, pier, etc., filled up with concrete, rubble, or loose material. ? Obs.
| 1715 Leoni Palladio's Archit. 14 The ancient walls of Naples..are made of two rows of free stones..bound together with other crossing rows, so that the space or Coffers..were filled up with stones or earth. |
† 6. Fortification. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Coffer, in fortification, denotes a hollow lodgment, athwart a dry moat, from six to seven feet deep, and from sixteen to eighteen feet broad; the upper part made of pieces of timber raised two feet above the level of the moat; which little elevation has hurdles laden with earth for its covering; and serves as a parapet, with embrasures. The coffer is nearly the same with the caponiere..The besieged generally make use of coffers to repulse the besiegers, when they endeavour to pass the ditch. 1755 in Johnson; and in later Dicts. |
7. Mining. a. A trough in which tin-ore is broken to pieces. ? Obs.
| 1671 Phil. Trans. VI. 2108 Which with the Ores falls down into the Coffer (i.e. a long square box of the firmest timber, 3 foot long and 1½ foot over). |
b. ‘A rectangular plank frame, used in timbering levels’ (Raymond Mining Gloss. 1881).
8. Ordnance Survey. Applied to wooden troughs used to support the chain in measuring a base-line of an Ordnance Survey.
| 1785 Roy Surveying in Phil. Trans. LXXV. 452 Each coffer consisted of three boards about half an inch thick. 1800 Ibid. XC. 557 The apparatus for the measurement, consisting of..pickets, iron heads, and a new set of coffers. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXV. 217/2 In the actual measurement the measuring chain was not supported on coffers, or stretched by a constant weight. |
9. Hydraulics. a. A caisson or water-tight box: cf. coffer-dam 1. b. A kind of caisson or floating dock. c. ‘The lock for a barge’ (Simmonds).
| 1822 Trans. Soc. Arts XL. 125 c c the coffer slung by the ropes d d [a watertight box used in repairing a ship's side, below the water line; elsewhere called a caisson]. |
10. in fire-coffer, q.v.
11. Comb., as † coffer-key, coffer-lid (also fig.), coffer-like adj.; coffer-fish, a trunk-fish, a species of Ostracion; coffer-slide valve, a box slide-valve of a steam-engine. See also coffer-dam, -work.
| 1884 J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 14 The extraordinary *coffer-fish..preserved and sold at Suez to homeward-bound Anglo-Indians. |
| 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 532 Thryft hath lost her *cofer kaye. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 70 A *Corfyrled [v.r. Cofer leyd], arculus. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 1127 She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes. |
| 1850 Prescott Mexico I. 338 The huge Cofre de Perote, which borrows its name..from the *coffer-like rock on its summit. |
| 1816 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 135 A *coffer-slide valve, which requires no packing to make it steam-tight, as there is always a vacuum under it. |
▪ II. coffer, v.1
(ˈkɒfə(r))
[f. the n.: cf. F. coffrer.]
1. trans. To enclose in, or as in, a coffer; to lay up securely; to hoard, to treasure up. Obs. or arch.
| c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 68 He will kepen it hym-self & cofren it faste. 1555 Fardle Facions i. iv. 43 Diuers of them throwe their dead into Riuers, other cofer them vp in earthen cofres. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 855 The aged man that coffers vp his gold. 1676 Bp. Grove Vind. Conform. Clergy (1680) 23 He..coffers it up amongst his other choice Expressions. 1805 Southey Madoc in Azt. xix, They gathered up The ashes of the dead, and coffer'd them Apart. 1828 D'Israeli Chas. I, I. iii. 45 This family document..is perhaps still coffered among the antiquities of our antiquaries' collections. |
2. Arch. To adorn with coffers (see coffer n. 5 a). See coffered.
3. Mining. (See quots., and cf. coffer-dam.)
| 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Coffer or Cofer (Derb.), to secure a shaft from leaking by ramming in clay behind the masonry or timbering. 1882 Nature XXVI. 569 The process of coffering out or damming back water in shafts..by means of a water-tight lining now called tubbing. |
▪ III. † coffer, v.2 Obs.
[? cf. goffer.]
To curl up, twist, warp. (intr. and trans.)
| 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Melon, The Sun will soon draw the Heat of so fresh a Bed to that Degree, that..the two first Leaves..of the Plant will twirl or coffer. 1784 Twamley Dairying 53 By the same cause that a board is made round or coffered up, by the heat of the Sun. |